Let's learn how to do it with the Ellen show!

So guys I have a special guest joining me today.

Hadar is a pronunciation and accent reduction specialist.

And on her YouTube channel "Accent's Way"

She helps learners, like you, to avoid common mistakes so that you can speak English clearly and confidently.

And then she is actually going to help you to improve your pronunciation, intonation, and connected speech

by breaking down a funny clip from The Ellen Show

So if you want to be able to speak English more clearly and confidently, I highly recommend that you

subscribe to Hadar's channel and while you're over there you can also check out

a new lesson that I made with Ellen, so now let's head over to the interview.

Hello to the beautiful viewers of learn English with TV series.

My name is Hadar and I'm from Accent's Way English with Hadar.

Now before we begin, before we even start watching the clip, here's what I'm gonna talk about today.

I'm going to talk about intonation the melody of English right, the melody of your speech

And in particular, I'm going to talk about rising intonation versus rising-falling intonation.

When we go up, and when we go down.

I'm also going to talk about STRESS.

What words you want to stress in a sentence 'cause it might be a little different

than how it is in your native tongue, and lastly I'm going to talk about rhythm

in particular reductions of parts of the sentence

when do you not pronounce every single word fully and then it sounds like everything is fast

and mumbled but in fact it helps you to convey your message in a clear

and accurate way

So let's watch the clip first.

There are tutorial videos that are very popular.

You can learn how to do anything at all if you watch.

Did you see this headline here

This week an 8-year-old boy in Ohio used YouTube

to learn how to drive, he took his four-year-old sister to McDonald's.

If they were smart they would have gone to Denny's 'cause kids eat free so that was, uh...

smart but not all the way smart.

Okay, so let's watch the first sentence

There are tutorial videos that are very popular. You can learn how to do anything at all.

"You can learn how to do anything at all"

So, first of all notice the stressed words.

"You can learn how to do anything at all" right?

So, the way she stresses words is by making the words a little longer, right?

All of a sudden these words are a lot longer

and also she goes higher in pitch

that means she goes on a higher note.

"You can learn how to do anything"

Once she goes up that means that the word is stressed,

and the word is longer.

"You can learn how to do anything at all"

Do anything at all if you watch. Did you see this headline here?

And then she goes into "if you watch, if you watch"

that's kind of flat because

something else is coming up if you watch and then she breaks and she asks a separate question.

Did you see this headline here.

Did you see this headline here?

Can you identify what the stressed words are?

Did you see this headline here

So I would say it's SEE and HEADLINE

Did you see this headline here.

It feels that these words are a little longer and higher in pitch, right?

And it's kinda like she puts a little more emphasis there

Did you see this headline here?

Now, so we have SEE and HEADLINE.

notice the beginning...

She's not saying "did you see the headline here, right?

That's a reduction. Words that are a little less important, they're called function words

Now, they're very important right but they're

a little less important for you to convey your message like "did" "could"

Am, is, are... On, in, at.

All those words, so these words are

functional words and function words are usually reduced so you can like take the

vowel in them and you squeeze that and kinda like reduce it so instead of you

you hear ya you connect the two words did you did you did you see the another

function word headline here okay so we notice here the content words the

stressed words see headline we noticed the function words are a little more

reduced did you the and then here is the last word that goes up in pitch and

that's the rising-rising intonation this rising-rising intonation at the end

headline here is usually associated with yes/no questions questions where the

answer is simply yes or no it's not like I'm trying to gain a lot of information

you're not supposed to give me an elaborate answer after that now we use

this rising rising intonation in many situations but it's mostly identified

with yes/no questions did you see this headline here did you see this headline

here going up in pitch at the end this week an eight-year-old boy in Ohio used

YouTube to learn how to drive an eight-year-old boy in Ohio used YouTube

to learn how to drive an eight-year-old boy in Ohio right so we have an

eight-year-old boy in Ohio right notice when she goes up

used YouTube YouTube is really really stress it's higher than the rest of the

words right that's the emphasis that's the point of the message here to learn

how to drive then we have learned and drive.

'To' is reduced. It's not to learn how to drive.

It's not flat. Not all words receive the same emphasis.

We have: to learn, how to, how to, how to,

Not "how to"

Had to, how to, right?

It's actually the beginning of the word 'hat' huh

That's what happens to the word how that's how reduced it is

huh and then two turns into tuh

and then I make the T like a light D

had a-- had a drive

An eight-year-old in Ohio used YouTube to learn how to drive

In terms of melody in terms of

intonation at the end

We see how she goes up and then down it's not rising-rising intonation

she's not saying 'to learn how to drive' right?

It's not a question 'to learn how to drive' rising-falling intonation, okay?

'To learn how to drive' rising-falling intonation indicating that's the end of the sentence.

You want to think of it as if you put a period at the end.

That is the rising-falling intonation, okay?

So, when you have a period at the end you go down

when you have a question at the end, if it's a yes/no question, you go up.

Did you see this headline?

'How to drive' okay?

Now before I play the next sentence,

I want you to listen closely and try to identify two things:

One, what are the stressed words

Two, when she goes up in pitch for a rising-rising intonation and

when she goes down for a rising-falling intonation.

He took his four-year-old sister to McDonald's

He took his four-year-old sister to McDonald's.

Can you hear that? Four-year-old sister to McDonald's, right?

It's pretty repetitive, the stressed words, and it creates this beat affecting the rhythm of English

Now, what about the pitch at the end? Was it rising-rising or was it rising-falling?

Let's listen to it again.

He took his four-year-old sister to McDonald's

You got it it's rising-falling 'to McDonald's' right?

So, she goes really high in pitch but then she drops all the way to the bottom of their pitch

'to McDonald's'

indicating that it's the end of the sentence, there is nothing else coming up right after

I mean of course she's gonna continue talking

about what she talked about here but it's the end of the sentence the end of the idea.

If they were smart they would have gone to Denny's because kids eat free so thatwas, uh...

This is a really good sentence to learn about those reductions

If they were smart they would have gone to Denny's 'cause kids eat free

I'm gonna do it slowly.

If they were smart they would have gone to Denny's cuz kids eat free

What are the stress words here?

if they were smart

they would have gone to Danny's cuz kids eat free, so we have 'kids' and then 'free'

'smart Danny's kids free' they were smart they

were if they were if they were she goes fast here doesn't the reduced part smart

higher in pitch longer the next part they would have gone to turns into they

would've gone duh they would have gone duh, they would have gone duh.

This is how reduced it is, okay?

I dropped a 'have' to 'uh', woulda woulda they woulda gone is somewhat stressed.

'To' turns into 'duh', they would have gone duh, they would have

gone uh, they would have gone uh, they would've gond uh, they would have got a

Denny's, okay, and then Danny's is stressed. You take your time with it

'Cuz' not 'because'

cuz, cuz, cuz, cuz, kids eat free

so here you have three words that

are somewhat stressed 'cuz kids eat free'

they were smart they would have gone to Denny's cuz kids eat free

smart but not all the way smart

smart but not all the way smart

smart first stress word but not all the way, all the way smart so here

we really see this idea of rising intonation versus rising falling intonation

smart, something else is coming up, it's like you put in a comma there

but not all the way smart

rising-falling intonation at the end period.

So, now let's put everything into practice.

I'm going to play it again but this time

I'm going to leave you some time to repeat it and keep in mind everything that we talked about.

There are tutorial videos that are very popular you can learn how to do anything at all.

...if you watch. Did you see this headline here?

he took his four-year-old sister to McDonald's

okay that's it I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you found it helpful keep on learning with

English with TV series and this time start paying attention to words that are stressed,

words that are reduced and your intonation whether you are

going up in pitch or down in pitch

and also I'm inviting you to come and check out Accent's Way English with Hadar,

where you'll find more intonation videos

pronunciation videos and also some fluency boosters if you want to become

more fluent in English

I want you to remember that the only way to improve

and the only way to take your english to the next level

is through practice and repetition, okay? And of course to speak as much as possible

even if you make mistakes because mistakes is the only way to learn.

Thank you for watching and have a wonderful wonderful day.

Bye!

Awesome! I hope you had a ton of fun learning English with Hadar and I today.

Don't stop! Be sure to go over to her channel and check out the video that we made there together

and while you're there, be sure to subscribe to 'Accent's Way'

Also, subscribe to our channel for all of our newest lessons.

Check out how to learn to understand fast speaking natives

with our three three-part mini course.

Also, be sure to check out of this other video

that I think you really enjoy.

Now it's time to go beyond the classroom

and live your English.

Aww yeah!